May 23, 2008

With the wife in China and coming off a big win, I coasted a bit this past week, I must admit. I didn't play any big tourneys on Sunday. After hours, I got some practice in by playing a $26 Stud H/L MTT. I had a foot in the grave several times but was able to climb out and make the money before falling in 12th place of the original 91 for a small profit.

I didn't play at all Monday, then on Tuesday, I played the $109 10A tourney without cashing. On Wednesday, I played it again and finished 23/369 for a small payday. Here was the standout hand in that event:

In the opening level, $10/20, I raised to $80 from early position with Ad-Js and was called by the player two to my left. The flop came Ks-Qs-Qd. If he has any of that, I'm looking to find out on the flop, while encouraging him to lay down any underpair with my $100 continuation bet. He called, indicating that he not only had a piece, but most likely the Q which he could stand to slowplay against my possible A-K or A-A. The turn was a beautiful Ts, filling my straight and giving me the flush draw as well. Of course, I'm drawing mighty slim if he's already full, but I thought his most likely holding, given the action, is A-Q. I bet out $200, expecting him to make his move if he did have the A-Q. He raised to $600 and I took a moment to consider my options. I decided that if he has T-T or K-Q, I was willing to go broke, and if he has A-Q, I'd imagine he's willing to go broke, so I pushed for $2500 more. It must have looked to him like an A-K with a flush draw because he made the call. I was ahead but didn't want to see any Broadway cards. The river was the As which looked really bad for half a second until I realized that I had made a royal straight flush to beat his full house. This is the first royal I've made playing no-limit. I remember three from my limit days but in NL, we rarely see such a strong hand go all the way to the river. This hand played out just perfectly enough for both of us to get all in on the turn and watch the magic happen.

I got out to a big chip lead and continued to apply pressure to the smaller stacks until this crazy hand brought me down to size:

I got into a three-way pot holding 7s-5s and the flop came 6c-5d-4d. I checked from the big blind and the original raiser made a bet. The third player raised the bet and it was back to me. I took a long time thinking this one out and finally decided that even if they both have overpairs, I was in good shape, especially if nobody has the 8-8. There's a chance the third guy has a set but he had the smaller stack of the two opponents so I decided the best play was to shove. I got called, but not from the third guy, who quickly mucked after the pre-flop raiser made an instacall. I expected to see a monster like Ad-Kd, but he shows Ac-3c, putting him on a draw to the ignorant end of the straight with the overcard and a back door flush draw. Not a good call in my opinion. I was already in the lead and I even held one of his outs. Sadly for me, he caught the dreaded ace on the river to take the pot. I still had plenty of chips but winning that pot would have turned me into a Hoover, able to suck up all the chips on the table.

The cards dried up but my stack lasted all the way to bubble play. I was able to win a big pot when my Q-Q held up against two players both holding A-K. I then found some more chips when I checked behind the guy slowplaying top two pair on an A-J-x flop. I had Q-T and caught the K on the turn which helped me bust him. I kept marching when my 4-4 rivered a wheel against 8-8 all-in preflop. Soon after, I busted 9-9 with A-2 and I realized that I was using up all my luck for the week. When I was faced with a huge all-in reraise while holding A-K, part of me knew that there was no way I was going to win this race after winning all those other improbable hands. But still, the odds are the odds and I couldn't make the laydown. His Tens held up to cripple me. I busted when my Ah-9h went up against Kings.

On Thursday, I played a little HORSE but lost money. I then played a couple of tourneys and won a couple of hundred bucks. One was a Heads-Up Shootout. I won my first five matches but then it was past midnight before the next one began and I was running out of stamina. I didn't have the patience to play properly so I played it really fast and ran into some hands. I got to bed by 12:30P and was still able to turn my $22 into $192 while practicing my heads-up game.

Lastly, on Friday, I decided to play the cash game at Full Tilt in an attempt to rebuild my bankroll there while I'm playing well. It started out ugly and I was down a couple of hundred after two hours, but the magic happened in the third hour and I finished up nearly $500. I doubt I'll be able to play much this weekend but I might be able to work in some cash games here and there.